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NUtech Ventures Startup Guide
Launched June 2024
The Startup Guide is a live website created to help entrepreneurs and University of Nebraska researchers understand the startup process. The guide is targeted toward UNL employees who have Intellectual Property (IP) they would like to protect and commercialize via their own startup; it provides helpful tools, information, and resources for entrepreneurs in the Nebraska and overall Midwest startup communities.
NUtech Ventures
The Nonprofit
"NUtech Ventures is the technology commercialization affiliate of the University of Nebraska that serves the Lincoln and Kearny campuses."
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In other words, NUtech helps university employees protect intellectual property that is owned, at least in part, by the University and promotes entrepreneurship through programming, sponsored events, and sharing resources.
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Though the organization focuses on University employees, the Entrepreneurship team often helps community startups by providing resources, connections, and guidance.
My Role
My position title was Entrepreneurship Intern. Together with my supervisor Joy Eakin, we comprised the small but mighty Entrepreneurship team at NUtech.
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As the first person in the position, I had the pleasure of somewhat shaping the role to ensure it helped Joy accomplish her goals, improved the overall output of the Entrepreneurship team, and increased NUtech's presence in the Lincoln entrepreneurship community.
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I had three primary objectives including creating a funding opportunity database, revamping the Startup Guide, and supporting entrepreneurship programming and events.
Skills Utilized
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UX/UI Principles
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User Journey
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Accessibility
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Site Logic and Flow
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Aesthetics and Design
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Wix Code (HTML basics)
03
Written Communication
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Translating entrepreneurial jargon into simple, easy-to-understand concepts for researchers and non-native English speakers
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Distilling years of entrepreneurial coursework into one brief but comprehensive guide
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Creating and communicating startup resources
02
SEO/Digital Marketing
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Keyword Optimization
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Digital Marketing Strategy
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SEO Strategy
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Backlinking Strategy
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Web Design/Graphic Design Principles
04
Project Management
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Delegation
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Cross-Functional Collaboration
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Time Management
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Organization and Structure Creation
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Presenting
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Obtaining Team Buy-In and Fostering Enthusiasm
Before...
NUtech Ventures released the Guide to Startup Companies in 2021 as a PDF on its website and a printed booklet. The Guide to Startup Companies was intended to help researchers gain a better understanding of the process of creating a startup that has university-owned IP. It contained basic information about business plans and business planning but was primarily focused on IP.
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Below is the previous Guide for comparison. I suggest directing your attention to the differences in the overall quality and quantity of the content, the design, resources and tools, usability, and professionalism between this version of the Guide, and the website version.
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Scroll within the box below to see the entire Guide.
The original Guide was devised by a small team early in NUtech Ventures's Entrepreneurship programming; therefore, the team had few resources, limited time, and no dedicated personnel to create the Guide. The content was primarily focused on legal, IP, and financial resources and served as a helpful tool for many entrepreneurs in the community.
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When I started at NUtech, my boss asked me to add more information and resources to the existing Guide with the objective of helping potential entrepreneurs gain a proper understanding of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Thankfully, Joy was on board with my idea to create a Guide that was interactive, more easily maintained, and updated but also could be used as a data-collecting tool to better inform NUtech's entrepreneurship team regarding the resources and information entrepreneurs seek. Though the site is a modern and significantly more detailed update to the original, it serves multiple purposes and is poised to be sustainable and highly valuable to NUtech in the long term.